That sublime cast and director Frank R. Strayer’s prowling
camerawork help The Vampire Bat to
flap above its patchwork origins. A bizarre climax involving some sort of
pulsating monster meatloaf in a fish tank also helps disguise the fact that it is a horror film that tends to pull its
punches and engage in a bit too much silly comic relief by way of the shrill Maude
Eburne. Nevertheless, The Vampire Bat
affords Frye his juiciest horror role aside from Dracula, and that is no small thing, even if Edward T. Lowe’s
script forces him to talk like Tonto.
Essentially, The
Vampire Bat is a mixed bag. So is The Film Detective’s new DVD. The
company’s restoration of the film from 35mm elements boasts a host of video
issues. There are scratches, missing frames, stability problems, speckles,
washed out shots, and shots that almost look like they were captured on video.
However, taken as a whole, the film actually looks good. Quite a number of
shots are astoundingly crisp for a picture from 1933 that probably wasn’t at
the top of anyone’s to-preserve list. Compared to the mutilated prints on all
those cut-rate collections of public domain horror pictures out there, this
restoration is revelatory. Plus this new disc restores a startling sequence in
which those rampaging villagers wield hand-colored torches of red and yellow,
which you probably won’t see on the budget DVDs. With The Vampire Bat, The Film Detective also gets into the bonus
material game with a dry yet informative audio commentary from film historian
Sam Sherman and a poignant seven-minute featurette in which Melvyn Douglas’s
son Gregory Hesselberg discusses his troubled relationship with his dad.
